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NASCAR: Kyle Larson wins at Richmond, Byron's dominant day crushed

Kyle Larson won his first NASCAR race of 2023 at Richmond after gaining the lead on the last pit stop of the race.

RICHMOND, Va. — Chevrolets stole the show at the Toyota Owners 400 by taking the top three positions as Kyle Larson earned the win.

Larson gained the lead from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron on a late pit stop and raced away to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2023. 

"My pit crew had a great stop," said Larson to the media after the race. "[It feels] good to get a win, hopefully many more."

William Byron was a top contender on Sunday and seemed to be in a position to earn his third win of the season but after leading a race-high 117 laps he was spun out by Christopher Bell on a restart with around 20 laps to go. Byron finished 24th.

Following Larson to the finish was Josh Berry, who earned his first career top five in his sixth career start by finishing 2nd. Berry is filling in for Chase Elliott in the HMS No. 9 for Chase Elliott, who was injured in March.

It was a full-force campaign from HMS as Alex Bowman started on the pole but was quickly passed by Byron. 

Credit: AP
Driver Alex Bowman (48) leads the start followed by Kyle Busch (8) William Byron (24) and Ross Chastain during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Mike Caudill)

The first stage was dominated by Byron as he continues to be one of the best drivers this season. 

The first caution for an on-track incident waved on lap 45 as Denny Hamlin bumped J.J. Yeley, who spun around and made contact with the wall. 

Berry was later spun out by Ryan Blaney in stage two.

Byron continued to lead but was soon challenged for the lead by Larson as the leaders reached the backend of the lead lap drivers. Noah Gragson proved to be a tough driver to get around as neither of the Hendrick cars could pass him. This allowed Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. to pull in and challenge for the lead.

Green flag pit stops happened around this time. Larson bumped into Daniel Suárez on pit road which hurt the performance of both cars. The damage proved to be enough to keep Larson out of the top spot for quite some time.

Bell and Denny Hamlin then emerged to the front as they got around lapped traffic better than Byron. Hamlin zoomed off to win stage two and led for a while but lost a chance at the win with a pit road speeding penalty, his second pit road penalty of the day.

Truex and Byron were fighting for the lead with under 30 laps remaining when Tyler Reddick spun out, prompting a caution.

Larson's crew had a great stop and got him out first. Berry restarted 2nd, Truex was 3rd, and Byron dropped to 4th after a slightly off-stop by his crew.

Credit: AP
William Byron (24) completes a pit stop during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, April 2, 2023, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Mike Caudill)

Less than a lap after the race restarted, Byron was spun as Bell made contact with the rear corner of his car. With Byron out of the picture, it was all but ensured that we would get a driver scoring their first win of the season.

Larson and Berry started on the front row with 18 to go as the No. 5 easily cleared the No. 9 to race off for the win.

Ross Chastain finished 3rd, Bell finished 4th, and Kevin Harvick finished 5th. 

The win is Larson's 2nd at Richmond and his first of 2023, all but clinching him a spot in the 2023 playoffs. Six drivers have won the seven races in 2023.

NASCAR gets dirty next week with a trip to the Bristol dirt track on Sunday, April 9.    

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